David Warner signed off his Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign in style, notching up his eight 50 of the season to help Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) take a step closer towards qualifying for the play-offs. The hosts recorded a comfortable 45-run win over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here yesterday.

Playing his last match of the season before heading home for World Cup preparations, Warner struck a belligerent 81 off 56 balls with seven fours and two sixes to complete his IPL 2019 campaign with 692 runs, quite comfortably the most by any batsman so far.

For KXIP, K.L. Rahul was the lone warrior as he scored brilliant 79 off 56 balls. However, his knock went in vain as he didn’t get the support from the other end as the wickets kept falling on regular intervals.

Earlier, SRH posted a huge total batting first, thanks to the quickfire onslaught in the batting powerplay. In the absence of Jonny Bairstow, SRH sent Wriddhiman Saha to open the innings along side David Warner, who was playing his last match of the ongoing IPL 2019.

Both the openers got going right from the first over and smashed KXIP bowlers to all over the park. The pair also completed the fastest team 50 of the ongoing season in the process.

They finished the powerplay with 77 without a loss.

To stop the run flow, KXIP skipper introduced spin from both ends. Murugan Ashwin got Wriddhiman Saha in the seventh over but Warner continued with his natural game from                             the other end.

He got a decent support from Manish Pandey who scored 36 off 25 balls. Little cameos from skipper Kane Williamson and Mohammad Nabi ensured SRH reach a huge total and they finished with 212/6.

David Warner was chosen as the Man of the Match.